Dow Closes Above 14,000 For 1st Time Since Oct. ’07

By Sam Mamudi

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 14,000 today for the first time since Oct. 12, 2007. The benchmark originally broke through the 14,000 level on July 19, 2007, and the last time before today it was above 14,000 was Oct. 17, 2007. In the ensuing years we saw the Dow close as low as 6,547.05, on March 9, 2009; it’s gained 114% since then:

It’s been quite a journey back, though we’re not quite there yet — today’s closing level of 14,009.79 leaves the Dow 1.09% off its Oct. 9, 2007 closing record high of 14,164.53.

The best performing Dow stock since that date (of companies on the benchmark today) is Home Depot (HD), up 99.1%; IBM (IBM) has risen 73.% while McDonald‘s (MCD) is up 67.2%.

No prizes for guessing the biggest declining Dow stock since late 2007: Bank of America (BAC), which is off 77.7%. Alcoa (AA) shares have lost 77.3%.

The Dow is on quite a roll, up 8.28% in the past five weeks; it gained 149.21 points today to close up 1.08%.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index is up 7.9% in the past five weeks. The index rose 1.01% today to close at 1,513.17, just 3.3% off its record high close of 1,565.15.

The Russell 2000 index, meanwhile, set yet another record close, its 13th of 2013, gaining 1.01% today to close at 911.18. The small-cap index is up 9.5% in the past five weeks.

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The blog is written by Ben Levisohn, a former stock trader who has covered financial markets for the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and BusinessWeek.